Sweeney's Bothy, Bothan Shuibhne

A full house couldn’t
be more lovely
than my little oratory
in Tuam Inbir

Where the stars are
set in their order
together with the sun & moon

A house where the rain
does not pour in
a place where spears
are no longer dreaded

My wee hut’s
as bright as a garden
but there’s no wall
to fence me in



after ‘The Pity of Nature’;
Suibhne's 'oratory' perched
in a blackthorn tree

then the giddiness
came over Suibhne

intoxicated with horror,
panic, dismay, fear,
flightiness, giddiness, & terror

his joints a shaking mass
& he rose into the air

     

















the thorn is Sweeney's memory
   of the spear

the harsh brang of battle
is the riddle    our design must settle


the blackthorn drinks my blood again

my face bleeds on the sodden wood

thorns lace my sores

   – Trevor Joyce, Sweeny, Peregrine

   

            TIME

             tine


          THORN

               \

        SHELTER

             /\

      HAWTHORN

         schiltron

the thorn marks   Suibhne’s aloneness

which inspires us   & challenges us

how shall we bring   the thorn

   into translation?

the morphology
of the thorn tree
is torn with intensity

the thorn
has its reason
in every season

the thorn proceeds
by throwing itself
out of symmetry

the thorn is drawn
over and over again
reducing the blackthorn’s profusion
to a single articulation
   a figure

the thorn finds purpose
as pillar   or pilotis

the thorn turns its points   skywards

away from delicate flesh

in our design

the thorn column suggested

extending the angled roof     outwards
    beyond the bothy walls

a space began to open
   a verandah 

a space within which
the thorn-pilotis
   would hover

in our discussions
we revised the thorn's position
shaping a screen

providing due protection
from the Atlantic winds
which whistle   twice around
   the cliffs

only when the revisions
are precise

will the bothy stand

square and plumb
on a hill   facing
a rugged mountain skyline

the hut-yet-to-be-built
has found its home
in the vale of Cleadale
on the Isle of Eigg

the furthest of the leaps
the outcast Sweeney made
in his mad journey
through the wilds

Sweeney's wee hut
will have it's windows
faced to the west

aligned so as to be
filled with the massif
skyline of Rum

the sun setting
silhouetting

the upslope
of Sgurr nan Gillean

the spear point
of Askival

Hallival
where the shearwaters
have their burrows

from behind the hut

will be sheltered

by the echoing curtain

of the cliffs of Beinn Bhuidhe

]

between Camas Sgiotag

Bay of the Whisk

where the quartz sands

shrilly sing

Coig peighinnean

The Five-Penny Land

Lageorna

The Barley Hollow

and Sron na h-Iolaire

Promontory of the Eagle

the sharp point of the thorn

will be exchanged

for beak & wing

as we enter Sweeney's

aViform vision

    V

to become
tree high
clamber the truth

of the tree

   trunk

through rafter-branches
& canopies
of birdsong

to the cloud's
   ceiling

image credits

TBP bothy, Inshriach, Luke Allan, 2013; Shuibhne, Hanna Tuulikki, 2013;
blackthorn sketch, Alec Finlay, 2013; TIME / tine (for John Purser), Alec
Finlay, 2013; blackthorn sketch, Alec Finlay, 2013; pilotis, Iain Macleod
(TBP), after AF, 2013; sketches for Bothan Shuibhne, AF, 2013; Shuibhne,
Alec Finlay, 2013; Eigg from Skye, Hanna Tuulikki, 2013, Cleadale, Eigg,
and the beach, Lucy Conway, 2013; birdskulls (collection John Purser),
Hanna Tuulikki, 2013; birdsong, Alec Finlay, 2012; Carbeth, Morven Gregor;
Shuibhne, Hanna Tuulikki, 2013.

The poems draw on Trevor Joyce and Seamus Heaney's versions of the Shuibhne cycle, Sweeney Peregrine and Sweeney Astray.

Further reflections on huts and viewing are published here.

Bothan Shuibhne | Sweeney's Bothy
Alec Finlay & The Bothy Project, 2012-13

a new bothy for creative residencies
located on the Isle of Eigg

commissioned as part of Creative Scotland's
Year of Natural Scotland, 2013